


sweet thing

by ineedmygirl



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe, Barista Tsukki, Fluff and Humor, M/M, futakuchi is a terrible flirt, hot chocolate is futatsukkis love language, i finally give these two the happy ending they deserve, ski instructor futakuchi, ski resort workers, tsukki is his long suffering crush, who fall in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-31
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-14 10:22:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29044539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ineedmygirl/pseuds/ineedmygirl
Summary: “How do you know I don’t like beer?” Futakuchi was right, infuriatingly so, but Tsukishima can’t recall ever sharing that particular fact with him.Leaning in like he was letting Tsukishima in on some big secret, Futakuchi gave him a knowing grin and said, “Because you like sweet things.”or, tsukishima liked every aspect of his job at the ski resort except for one: futakuchi kenji
Relationships: Futakuchi Kenji/Tsukishima Kei
Comments: 9
Kudos: 85





	sweet thing

**Author's Note:**

> i WILL NOT REST until there is more futatsukki in the world!!! anyways, here's one of the pieces i wrote for the 'moonrise' tsukishima zine i hope u enjoy :')
> 
> [twitter](https://twitter.com/oiiblondie)

  
  
  
Tsukishima liked most aspects of his job. It wasn’t like he wanted to make a lifelong career out of selling coffee, hot chocolate, and pastries in a ski resort lodge or anything, but he was still young and it was easy money while he figured out what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. 

The resort was nice, and the view out the window of fresh layers of powdered snow covering the landscape every day was certainly nothing to complain about. Sure, sometimes he got a little cold with people constantly coming in and out of the lodge, bringing in blusters of cold air every time they opened the door, but he could easily throw on another sweater and be perfectly comfortable. Even the customers were pleasant most of the time, being on vacation and away from their stressful every day lives. Easily, the happiest customers that he dealt with were the ones who were just coming back from skiing lessons, cheeks wind-burned and hats dusted with snow.

He could say it was just because they all really enjoyed skiing. But begrudgingly, he could admit that it was probably more to do with the instructor.

Speaking of whom, Tsukishima recognized the little boy in the neon orange hat that was walking in now with a group of people from earlier that morning. He knew what instructor had been in charge of that group, and he internally groaned, knowing what was sure to soon follow.

He went through the motions of brewing fresh cups of steaming coffee for the adults of the group, and a few hot chocolates for the kids. He was turned with his back to the counter, cleaning out his measuring cups, when he heard the familiar voice.

“Got anything sweet for me?”

Tsukishima cursed under his breath as the utensil in his hand clattered into the sink with a metallic _clang._ There was a muffled laugh behind him and he took a deep breath, bracing for impact to turn and face the menace.

Futakuchi Kenji was the one aspect of Tsukishima’s job that he did _not_ like.

He smiled at Tsukishima, as charmingly as he always did, and Tsukishima grit his teeth.

“We have hot chocolate.”

Futakuchi’s lips curled into a smirk, eyes slowly dragging up and down Tsukishima’s body with obvious appraisal.

“Not exactly what I had in mind.”

Very calmly, Tsukishima flipped the ‘Open’ sign on the counter to ‘Closed’. It was a little early for his break, but entirely worth it for the way that Futakuchi’s suave façade cracked, eyebrows raising in alarm when Tsukishima started to walk away.

“Alright, okay, hold on!” He put his hands up in a gesture of surrender. “I’m freezing my ass off here, I’ll take the hot chocolate!”

Tsukishima tilted his head, humming thoughtfully. Futakuchi sighed fondly, dropping his still gloved hands and shoving them in his coat pockets.

“Pretty please?” He needled, warm brown eyes widened innocently. “Pretty please with sugar on top, Sweetness?”

“How many times do I have to ask you to stop calling me that?”

“I’ll stop calling you that when you stop being so sweet.” Futakuchi winked. Tsukishima rolled his eyes and made sure to elbow the other man as he walked past, hard enough that even through the padding of his coat he let out a breathless wheeze. “Yup,” Futakuchi groaned. “That’s my boy.”

“Not your boy,” Tsukishima pointed out blandly, starting up the hot chocolate machine.

“One of these days, Tsukishima Kei,” Futakuchi promised, like he always did. He pulled up a stool and perched himself right in front of Tsukishima at the counter, folding his arms in front of him and resting his chin on them, watching as Tsukishima made his hot chocolate.

It was hard not to be just the tiniest bit distracted by him. Tsukishima wasn’t _interested_ or anything, he was just…not blind. And Futakuchi was perhaps the most lovely looking person that Tsukishima had ever seen in his life.

“You have snow in your hair.” _And rosy cheeks and stars in your eyes and a very kissable smile on your lips._

“Do I?” Futakuchi took off one of his gloves and ran his hand through his long brown hair. “Did I get it?”

“No,” Tsukishima lied. It wasn’t like there was a mirror around for Futakuchi to double check and catch him. When Tsukishima placed his hot chocolate in front of him, he brushed his fingers lightly through the soft strands of Futakuchi’s hair that lay across his forehead, wiping away imaginary snow. Futakuchi’s lips parted slightly in surprise and Tsukishima’s heart pounded. “Got it.”

“Thanks.”

Tsukishima nodded and quickly busied himself with cleaning the hot chocolate machine. It wouldn’t do to let Futakuchi in on the secret of his own beauty. He was infuriating enough as it was, the last thing Tsukishima wanted to do was give his already inflated ego a boost.

Futakuchi kicked his feet in a strangely childlike fashion and hummed under his breath while he drank his hot chocolate, waving to his skiing group and watching the snow fall out the window. Tsukishima watched Futakuchi watch the snow fall and wondered why he ever had to go and open his mouth. He was a half-step from perfect when he was quiet like this.

Tsukishima looked away, cheeks heating up guiltily when Futakuchi suddenly turned back around, picking his phone up off the counter and checking the screen with a little noise of surprise.

“Oh shoot, I didn’t even notice the time. I have to take another group up in twenty minutes.” He tossed his empty cup into the trash can behind the counter and blew Tsukishima an obnoxious kiss as he wiggled his hands back into his gloves. “Thanks for the drink, Sweetness! I adore you!” He called over his shoulder. A few of the patrons giggled and Tsukishima hid his face in his hands, a flush crawling up the back of his neck.

_I hate him,_ he thought, as butterflies erupted into chaos in his stomach.  
  


*

Almost every weekend, all the young twenty-somethings that worked at the resort got together in the staff quarters to have a party. Tsukishima didn’t usually bother showing up since he always got bored and left after barely an hour most times anyways. But the kid he was rooming with this year, Komori, had his cousin in town visiting for the weekend, and he begged Tsukishima to come to the party with them so he could look cool in front of Sakusa.

Sakusa didn’t seem like the kind of person to be easily impressed by anything, let alone Tsukishima of all people, but he liked Komori well enough, so he agreed.

That was his first mistake of the night. His second mistake was not getting up and leaving the moment some drunk guy that he vaguely recognized from the rentals shop plopped down onto the couch next to him, spilling some of his beer in Tsukishima’s lap and sitting way too close for anyone’s comfort.

“Hey, I know you.” The guy leaned close into Tsukishima’s space so that he could smell the alcohol on his breath. “You work at the coffee counter, don’t ya?”

“There’s other stuff, too.”

The guy laughed like Tsukishima had just told the best joke of the century, rather than point out a simple fact.

“Damn, have you always been this pretty? I swear you weren’t always this pretty.”

“Maybe it’s just because you’re drunk.” Tsukishima’s entire body went very still when the guy’s hand found its way onto his thigh. “I’d prefer it if you didn’t touch me,” he managed in a clipped voice. His protest went completely ignored.

“Nah, I’m not that drunk,” the guy insisted, leaning in a little bit closer. Tsukishima turned his head to the side, swallowing hard. “Not too drunk to -”

“Hello there, Sweetness. I’ve been looking all over for you.”

The guy’s hand immediately withdrew from his leg and Tsukishima felt his lungs start working properly again.

“You,” the guy groaned. “Don’t you have hair to mousse or something?”

Futakuchi grinned, sharper than Tsukishima had ever seen it. “You think so? I’m flattered, but my hair is all natural, I’m afraid. Do you have any other devastating quips up your sleeve you’d like to give a try, or are you all maxed out of clever comebacks for the night?”

Tsukishima covered his mouth and snorted indelicately into his hand. Futakuchi’s gaze slid over to him and his smile softened familiarly at the corners.

“Off you go,” he waved a hand dismissively at the guy who was still sputtering half-formed insults at him without taking his eyes off of Tsukishima. With a few more grumbled curses, the guy finally got up and stalked off. Futakuchi took his place on the couch, leaving a few more inches of space between himself and Tsukishima.

“Alright?” He asked, the words almost too gentle to have come out of Futakuchi’s mouth. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Tsukishima tightened his jaw and forced his heartbeat to slow down, taking a few measured breaths in and out of his nose.

“I hope you’re not expecting me to thank you or anything. I had that handled.”

“Of course you did. I was just speeding up the process a bit. Besides, I really was looking for you.”

Tsukishima narrowed his eyes suspiciously, ignoring the warmth in his chest. “Why?”

“I brought you something!” Futakuchi opened his jacket and pulled a little silver flask out of the inside pocket, offering it to Tsukishima with a flourish. “Here.”

“What’s this?” Tsukishima wrinkled his nose as he twisted open the cap. He wasn’t a big fan of hard liquor, or most alcohols in general, but he was willing to make an exception after the disastrous ordeal he just went through.

_Rescued._ By _Futakuchi_ of all people, like he was some kind of knight on a white horse and Tsukishima was a helpless damsel.

He would drink just about anything to wipe his memory clean right now.

“Just try it. I promise, you’ll like it,” Futakuchi insisted, crossing one jean-clad leg over the other and leaning back in his seat, watching Tsukishima with curious eyes. It wasn’t often that Tsukishima saw Futakuchi without his ski parka on, and his stomach did strange backflips at the sight of Futakuchi in a plain mint green sweater, shaped perfectly to his lean body.

Tsukishima threw the flask back and took a sip.

He was pleasantly surprised when rather than the harsh sting of hard liquor, instead something…sweet coated the back of his throat. He blinked at Futakuchi, confused, and the other boy lit up.

“You do like it, don’t you? It’s spiked hot chocolate,” he declared proudly. “I mean, it’s just instant hot chocolate, nothing as good as that fancy stuff that you make, but I figured you’d like drinking this better than pretending to enjoy a beer.”

“How do you know I don’t like beer?” Futakuchi was right, infuriatingly so, but Tsukishima can’t recall ever sharing that particular fact with him.

Leaning in like he was letting Tsukishima in on some big secret, Futakuchi gave him a knowing grin and said, “Because you like sweet things.”  
  


*

Paramedics. That’s how the whole situation started, with the paramedics running past the lodge in their bright yellow jackets and helmets with first aid bags over their shoulders and a stretcher under two of their arms.

The patrons sitting at tables and at the couches around the fire looked out the window as they passed curiously, but there was a sinking feeling in Tsukishima’s stomach. Before his mind could catch up with his body, he was flipping the sign on the counter to ‘Closed’ and heading for the door. He ran out of the lodge, only realizing he had forgotten his jacket when he was hit by the icy chill of the air, and grabbed a passing paramedic by the sleeve.

“Excuse me, sir, can you tell me what happened?”

The paramedic paused and looked back at him briefly. “Some kid ran off the slopes and into the trees. Apparently, one of the instructors chased in after to rescue him.”

The sinking feeling in Tsukishima’s stomach only fell deeper. _One of the instructors._ Tsukishima watched Futakuchi go up with a group that morning, only a few hours ago, and hadn’t seen him since.

He could see the cluster of bright yellow jackets at the base of the mountain now, crowded around someone he couldn’t see, and started to run. His heart was pounding in his throat, almost painfully the closer he got, and all of his breath caught in his throat when he shouldered his way through the crowd and finally broke through to the other side.

It was him. Of _course_ it was him.

Futakuchi sat on a tree stump with a heavy blanket around his shoulders, a cut on his hairline that left a faded trail of blood down his fine-boned cheek, and an angry looking bruise across his jawline. His silky brown hair was in absolute disarray, twigs and leaves poking out of it, and when he spotted Tsukishima approaching, he smiled so big and wonderful and he was just _perfect._

“Worried about me, were you, Sweetness?” Futakuchi reached out for his hand when Tsukishima got close enough, and for some reason, Tsukishima let him take it.

“It’s a bit hard to ignore you when you always cause such a scene,” Tsukishima said, and his voice was rougher than he would have liked it to be. A violent shiver wracked his body and Futakuchi frowned.

“Where the hell is your jacket, huh?” He slipped off the blanket from around his shoulders and wrapped it around Tsukishima, tugging him closer, widening his knees to accommodate Tsukishima between them. “There, that’s better.”

Tsukishima tried to respond, but his throat was too clogged. No words would come out, not biting or insulting, or even a ‘thank you’. What was he supposed to say, anyways? _‘Yes, of course I was worried about you, you colossal idiot, I have literally never been so afraid in my life. Also, this blanket smells like cinnamon and sugar because of you and I never want to take it off._

Before his silence could stretch on too awkwardly, a little boy in a blue parka with big, watery eyes and a cut on his forehead that matched the one on Futakuchi’s own walked up to them. He clasped his tiny hands together and bowed so low the tip of his nose nearly touched the snow.

“I - I’m very sorry for all the trouble I caused!”

Futakuchi’s eyes went wide, then softened into something gooey and warm that made Tsukishima shiver again.

“Hey, don’t worry about it little man.” Futakuchi pat the kid gently on the shoulder, gesturing for him to stand up straight. “That was the most excitement I’ve gotten all winter!”

“R-Really?” The kid sniffled, wiping his nose with the back of his hand. Futakuchi nodded emphatically.

“You bet. And you know what else?” He leaned in close, gesturing for the kid to do the same, and nodded towards Tsukishima none-too-discretely. “You made me look really cool in front of my crush, here.”

In his mind, Tsukishima rolled his eyes, but in reality, his face was frozen solid, not even thawed out by the incredible heat he felt instantly flooding his cheeks.

“Really?” The kid said again, face breaking into a tiny grin.

“Would I lie to you?” Futakuchi asked.

Tsukishima knew the question wasn’t directed towards him, but a tiny voice in the back of his mind, for the first time, said, _‘No, I don’t think you would.’_ And Futakuchi was the one who said it himself. That one day, Tsukishima would be his.

He missed the rest of their conversation, too wrapped up in his own thoughts, but he tuned back in when Futakuchi said, “Let’s not make a habit of this, though. Okay?” He held his hand out for a fist bump which the kid happily returned, before running back over to where his parents were waiting.

Futakuchi was still talking, to him this time, Tsukishima was pretty sure. But Futakuchi’s lips moved and Futakuchi’s eyes burned and Tsukishima could only think of one thing.

Cautious of his injuries, Tsukishima stepped even further into the space between Futakuchi’s legs, held his face more carefully than he’d held anything in his entire life, and pressed their lips together.

Futakuchi made a small noise of surprise between them, but to Tsukishima it just sounded like _finally._ The other boy tasted like winter air and the last sip of hot chocolate and Tsukishima was addicted after only seconds. He always expected that Futakuchi would kiss with all the confidence of a star player swaggering onto the field of a game he knew he would win, but his lips were surprisingly giving and gentle, letting Tsukishima take what he wanted without pushing him for more.

No matter how persistent Futakuchi Kenji was, he never once pushed Tsukishima for more.

“What -” Futakuchi blinked up at him, at a loss for words for the first time since Tsukishima had met him. “What was the for?”

Tsukishima smiled and trailed delicate fingertips across Futakuchi’s sharp jawline, feeling it work around a hard swallow.

“I like sweet things, remember?”  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> hope u enjoyed! let me know what u thought in the comments and come be my friend on [twitter!](https://twitter.com/oiiblondie)


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